BRIDGEPORT -- Some 218 preschoolers and kindergartners and as many as 25 high school students will be pioneers on their first day of school this fall, entering three brand new schools of choice -- all in recycled facilities.

A few blocks south on Park Avenue, in classroom space attached to Congregation B'nai Israel at 2710 Park Ave., as many as 25 high school students from Fairfield and New Haven counties will start school Aug. 30 in the new Jewish High School of Connecticut, a private college preparatory school.

And on the east side, 90 kindergartners will begin school Aug. 30 in the elementary arm of Achievement First Bridgeport, a public charter school that is in its fourth year in the city. While the middle school portion of the school remains in the former Barnum School on Noble Avenue, the elementary portion is located in the former Garfield School, a 99-year-old brick structure on Stillman Street.

DISCOVERY

Every time Discovery Principal Marybeth Stickley entered a store in the past month, her wallet has gotten lighter while the new school gets cute little stools for the rest rooms or something else to hang in a classroom.

Even with a furniture budget that came with the construction of a new school, Stickley can't help herself and neither, apparently, can her staff.

"It's very exciting," said Nancy Lopez Peralta, one of three kindergarten teachers at the school. Peralta, who was a kindergarten teacher at Barnum and then a literacy coach, said she has taught thematic units before. Now everything will be based on science and inquiry, the school's theme.

"We want to develop their sense of wonder," said Stickley, who most recently was the district's early childhood education director.

The school draws 70 percent of its students from Bridgeport, and the rest from Easton, Fairfield, Milford, Shelton, Stratford and Trumbull. In addition to three kindergartens of 15 students, there are six pre-kindergarten classes, three for four-year-olds, three for three-year-olds. In all, 895 students applied for 128 slots.

Students were selected by lottery. There is a waiting list. Once in the school, students are guaranteed a slot through grade eight and thanks to a sibling policy, so are younger siblings.

The preschool day will be filled with structure, routines and play, with a focus on vocabulary. In kindergarten, after breakfast, there will be 90 solid minutes of reading instruction, but, according to Stickley, reading is also reinforced throughout the day. Students will also get a healthy dose of math, music, social studies and science. Science, Stickley added, is the "springboard to all we do."

Eventually the school would like to grow to 125 students. Its target this year is 25, although Harwitz would not say how close they are to that target. Students in the school come from all over Fairfield and New Haven counties, including Bridgeport, and are primarily ninth and tenth graders with a few upperclassmen.

"There is a real need and desire for this in this day and age," said Harwitz. The idea is to create an educated Jew, and is not affiliated with any particular branch of Judaism. Tuition is $24,900, but Harwitz said there is also substantial tuition assistance available.

Harwitz has experience starting Jewish high schools. He did so in San Francisco.

There will be seven full-time faculty members to start. There will be a college prep focus with a heavy emphasis on science, but also the chance to dabble in the performing arts and play team sports. The academic day runs from 8:25 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. followed by extra curricular activities and homework support until 5 p.m.

The school has a website at jhsct.org and welcomes inquiries at 203-275-8448.

ACHIEVEMENT FIRST

White hallways with bright blue trim, hardwood floors and Achievement First's signature college banners will greet kindergartners when they enter through the side door for breakfast on Aug. 30.

Kate Baker, the principal at the school, has been part of two other Achievement First schools and knows there is a reputation to uphold. The school is part of a chain of 19 elementary and middle charter schools that manages to help inner city students do as well or better than their suburban counterparts on standardized tests.

"We want them to know it's a joyful school, strict but warm," said Baker. "There are a lot of rules, a lot of structure and high academic expectations but we do want every child to feel that there are many adults at the school that care about them. We want kids to have a lot of fun while they are here, on the way to college."

Heather Wachter, the school's academic dean, said it's never to early to get the idea of college in their students heads. Each homeroom will have a college name, taken from the alma mater from one of the two teachers in the class. The school will also have the meerkat as a mascot, because the big eyed creatures work in teams.

The school had 250 applications. Only 180 were deemed eligible since the school recruits only from the east and west side of town. Of those eligible, 90 won spaces by lottery.

The former Garfield School, purchased from the city, underwent $650,000 in renovations, school officials said.

The school day at Achievement First runs from 7:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each homeroom of 30 students will break up into nine reading groups after morning meetings. Reading is for three hours. While there is no expectation that students will enter reading, Baker said they will be by December and that 98 percent of them will be reading on grade level or higher by next June. After reading, there is writing, lunch, play, then an afternoon of physical education, math, science and social studies.

The one disappointment Baker and Wachter have in the new school is the inability to demonstrate what their students will accomplish until they take the Connecticut Mastery Test for the first time as third graders.

"We love data and knowing if we're heading in the right direction or not," said Wachter. "It's nice to know how your students compare to other schools."